Denise Richards Joins ABC Family Drama Pilot Socio

Denise Richards has been spotted on the small screen a fair amount lately, with appearances in Two and a Half Men and Spike's Blue Mountain State among her credits. More recently, she appeared in FX's comedy Two and a Half Men and Lifetime's TV movie Blue Lagoon: Awakening. The actress may be bound to a more permanent place on TV, should things go well for the drama pilot for ABC Family, in which she's' set to star.

Deadline posted the news that Richards (The World is Not Enough, Wild Things) has been cast in the ABC Family drama pilot Socio, joining Kimberly Quinn (Terriers) and Avan Jogia. Written by Adam Milch, Socio centers on Jogia's character Danny Ryder, a kid who comes home after five years in prison for the murder of his aunt when he was 11. Just a quick math-check there, that means this convicted murderer is just sixteen years old.

Richards is set to play Danny's mother, "who once ruled the town’s social scene, but who now struggles to put on a brave face with her son returning home under a cloud of scandal and shame." Meanwhile, Quinn is playing Tess, the mother of Danny's friend Jo. Apparently, she's trying to give Danny the benefit of the doubt.

The title alone is intriguing, with Socio possibly referring to young Danny, who might be seen as a sociopath. And maybe he is, if he really did kill his aunt. Or he had his childhood destroyed due to someone else's act of violence, which has to have taken its toll on the kid. Either way, the concept for this one has a lot going for it. And now it has a very familiar face in Denise Richards. We'll have to wait and see how this one does, particularly because it seems to tread into darker water for the cable network.